How Things Used to Be
by Skij Leonhart
Summary: Victoria ends up a long way from home and her family... but finds a new set instead. But when her old family comes back to haunt her... what happens? A Vi origin story; bear with my irregular updates! T for strong language&violence. (its like PG-13 spectrum of PG) -Skij
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: ****Here's to starting fresh: without further ado, ladies and gents.**

**How Things Used to Be, by yours truly; Skij. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 1:

Light hadn't even begun to poke its fingers through the brunette's blinds yet, and still her alarm insisted on screaming its two-tone siren call over and over until Victoria slammed her hand down on it, effectively snoozing it for another five minutes.

"Oh, no you don't."

A strong hand grabbed Victoria by the collar and threw her down onto the floor, violently disturbing her peaceful sleep. Groaning, she sat up and rubbed her head, trying to discern who had done such a vile deed when the perpetrator himself decided to lean down and plant a kiss on her forehead. The act brought a smile to her face and prompted her to struggle to her feet, leaning on her dresser for support.

"Come on, love, we have a long day and it's already five-thirty." Following the bewildered look on Victoria's face, the young man smiled and noted, "I took the liberty of setting your alarm back thirty minutes, considering you snooze through it anyways. Now hurry up and move!"

The tone faded back to his signature bit of authority, and Victoria immediately started over to her closet to see what she would put on today. As he left the room, a smile crept across the girl's face.

* * *

The man left the room and headed down the hallway to enter the dining room, where Victoria's sister, Jessica, was sitting on a stool in the kitchen, eating yogurt noisily as the other man entered the room. He merely glanced at her in disgust as he turned to open the fridge, ignoring her icy glare in response.

"You know you could just say good morning, like a civil person."

"I only speak civilly to people who _act_ civilly, Jess."

"Please. I act well enough for you to not kick me out; that ought to count for something, right?" Jess implored, only to be immediately rebuffed. The young man replied in a mocking tone, " 'Please.' You know the only reason I keep you two around is because of Father's wishes; if it were up to me, I'd have you gone in a heartbeat."

The two held frigid glares for a moment before bursting into laughter; sometimes, only sometimes, would the man laugh.

Victoria entered the room to see the rare sight of her sister and the young man joking around; she rose an eyebrow as she entered the kitchen, yawning and raising her arms to reach the cabinet for a cup to pour herself some orange juice.

"Please, allow me." The man gestured for the glass as he already had the bottle in hand. Smiling, Victoria handed the glass over and looked at her sister, who was frowning but for what reason she couldn't tell.

"Here you go; your morning glass of 73% water, 26% sugar, and one percent fake oranges, served right to you!" Victoria and the young man chuckled at his corny, yet true joke; the orange juice was rather processed and tasted awful.

The light brunette took the glass with another smile and looked towards the clock underneath the windowsill; it read 5:47 in its flashing blue LED lights. Just past the time-teller was a sight that no one should have to wake up to; but 80% of the city's inhabitants did, the grungy, infested streets of Piltover's slums.

"You know, I've been wondering…" Jessica began, snapping Victoria out of her window trance.

_Jessica always does this when she wants something… Why doesn't he see it?_ Victoria mused, knowing that whatever her sister suggested was going to be outrageous, but somehow she would talk him into it. As usual. Victoria took a sip of her processed orange juice and stood in front of the sink, waiting for Jessica's suggestion and staring out the window.

"Can we go see the fair this year?" Victoria spit her juice out in the sink while the man gasped in horror, awestruck with her request. The words struck Victoria like a spear through the heart, and the young man's face now slightly distorted as if someone had held sulfur under his nose.

"Are you out of your _mind_, Jess? You know the festival's only for the New Pilts, ever since…" He coughed, paused and resumed.

"You'll be detained and kicked out on the spot if they catch you and…"

It seemed like Jessica was waiting for the 'if', and simply smiled at them both.

"_If_ they catch me, right?" the blonde interrupted; Victoria merely shook her head; only crazy, insane out-of-their-mind people tried to sneak into New Piltover. But their brother was even further enraged by this statement.

"I will **NOT** have you leaving this house except to go to school until the fair is **FINISHED**!" He was yelling now, cheeks flushed with red-hot anger. Finally, Jessica played her last card.

"I… well, I… just thought it'd be neat… 'cuz we never get to go… not since…" She burst into tears as she started off towards her room. Victoria thought it was fake, per usual, but her brother just shook his head and sat down in a chair next to the counter, face in his palms.

"Cheer up; maybe she'll change her mind tomorrow?" The young girl offered, knowing that he'd go on another self-deprecating speech about how it was impossible to keep the family together since their father's passing and this and that, and Victoria would offer words of condolences, and then her brother would wave her off, and she'd go and get ready, and the car ride to school would be another silent one.

It seemed like she was always left to be the strong one; even though she had the least experience in life, she always knew what to say.

* * *

When she arrived at school, though, things were different. Only being in the sixth grade, she had to walk the long way to the 'middle' section of her school; this passed by both the elementary and high school sections. The latter was abuzz with activity, but as she walked by, it seemed to quiet down slightly.

"Hey man, you got any ideas for that-"

"Yea, I came up with a plan to-"

"Do you know how many guards-"

"-if only there was another way in-"

Snippets of conversation here and there that she had picked up made her think of the conversation her family had this morning, and sneaking into the fair. Oh, the wondrous fair… the part she hadn't told her brother was that she wanted to go as well. It was such a wonderful event, and most of the kids from her part of town just wanted to go for the fireworks, which started right after sunset. They'd want to sit there, maybe holding hands, eating a cotton candy, enjoying the sights… But not Victoria. Sure… the pretty lights were pretty, but that's all they were. She wanted to go for the _inventions_, the part _before_ the fireworks that everyone seemed to neglect… but not Victoria. She knew the value of a good invention, and its power to save… and destroy.

Before the brunette girl could get lost in her thoughts and imagine the fair in its entirety, arms wrapped around her shoulders and yanked her into the adjacent room. Before she could scream or turn around and see her assailant, a cold, metallic object knocked her on the head and spots clouded her vision as she was dragged and sat up against the wall, pink backpack still in tow. The last thing she heard before passing out was a lock on the door being clicked shut.

The world went silent.

* * *

"Daddy, can we go see the fair _today_?" Jessica asked in a whiny, high pitched voice. It seemed to be her tradition, four years running , to continuously bug her father about the fair. This was the second to last day of the fair, and Jessica was hoping to keep it in the forefront of her father's mind so that she could plead with him tomorrow. Victoria clung to her father's arm as their brother walked a few steps behind them, pushing their cart of groceries down the sidewalk. The old man sighed and ran his free hand through his peppered hair.

"Yes dear, we can." Victoria stopped and looked up at her father quizzically while her sister screamed and jumped for joy, their brother chuckling to himself quietly. Jessica recovered enough to run over to her father and cling to his other arm, uttering a string of words that sounded like "thankyouthankouthankythankyothakyou" until it regressed to screaming. The brunette girl on the other side of the old man drew her brows into a frown; sometimes her sister could be so darn loud.

After stopping by their home for a few minutes so they could drop off the groceries and so Jessica could "omg i gotta pick out a dress", Victoria slipped inside to grab her trusty notepad/journal. The journal being half-way full already, she figured at the fair she could burn through another fourth just by drawing sketches of all the tech on the _real_ side of the fair. The little girl chuckled as she grabbed it off her nightstand and turned around to see her brother peeking inside the room.

"You gonna need an escort, little lady?" It was their secret; Victoria would say she was just following her brother, and he would pretend to be interested in the various tech and demo the ones that were available to do so; all of this while the unsuspecting little girl took notes and wrote down what she thought most fascinating. "Truth be told," her brother noted as he made his way back into the hallway, "some of the stuff _is_ interesting, but sometimes I think you're a little obsessed."

"Speaking of obsessed…" The dark-haired girl mumbled; the slightly older, much-louder blonde sister had finally darted out of her room in a simple yellow dress, much reflecting her mood and outlook for the fair. Both dark-haired siblings glanced at each other as their blonde sister gave a twirl with her dress on. When she realized the two weren't quite as excited as her, she scoffed and ran outside, yelling, "I won't let you two rain on my parade!"

Laughing, the two made their way out to the car and climbed in. There was a short, 10 minute ride to their destination which was already crawling with people; Jessica jumped from the car before their father could finish parking and ran towards the lake, where most of the festivities were. As the car rolled to a stop, Victoria slowly slid out of the car, followed closely by her brother. Their father sighed as they stood on the curb, staring after Jessica's disappearing figure with slight annoyance. Turning, he tossed the keys to the younger male for safekeeping.

"Don't take off without me, okay?" The older man joked as he made his way purposefully down towards his wild daughter. Free of her father, Victoria perked up considerably and grabbed her brother's hand, the other busy holding her notebook. Half-dragging him, the brunette ran towards the tail end of the exhibition stalls; the start was near the fireworks area, which was where she wanted to end up. Sighing, her brother rolled up his sleeves and started examining the various bits of technology as his sister flipped open her spiral and began to take notes.

* * *

Three hours after they had arrived at four, the sun had begun to set and they were nearing the end of the exhibition line; one particular invention had taken thirty minutes to build up to a spectacular ending of a program sequence before malfunctioning terribly by short-circuiting itself with the water it was demonstrating with. Everyone had walked away, disgruntled, as the owner flipped multiple shits over the sparking machine.

One of her favorites so far, though, had been the schematics for a weapon that piqued her curiosity. Some tables had handouts at their booths with pictures or blueprints; this one was a model of a shape-changing weapon. It changed from a massive hammer to a cannon-on-a-stick, as her brother had articulately put it. The operator included that it was "lightweight" and "easy to maneuver", but she thought it a bit too big for her taste. her brother asked her why she was interested in weaponry, of all things, and Victoria struggled to give him an answer.

"Well… I'm not sure; it just resonates with me inside. I'd love to be at the helm of something like that… in my size and color, of course." Her brother just shook his head as they walked on to the next booth.

Another favorite of Vi's was a set of augmentation boots and leg-braces; as the operator demonstrated, the brace-boot set allowed the user to jump and dash for quite the distance; and optional arm set allowed for similar strength in the upper body. This stand included an all-inclusive blueprint; the owner of the idea simply wanted to get his idea out into the world, not make money. Victoria took two copies, tucking one into her skirt, (just to be safe, she said) and walked towards the final booth she and her brother would make their way to for the evening.

This booth was much smaller than the rest, and seemed out of place; the color scheme was dull, the size awkward in comparison, and the arrangement strange; it was a closed booth without any display tables in front. Only a counter with a single, middle-aged woman behind it. When Victoria began to walk towards the booth, her brother grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Confused, she turned around to see him shaking his head no.

"But… it's the last booth! We went to every booth last year… and the year before that… and the year before that, too!" Victoria's whining seemed to rival Jessica's at this point, and her brother caved. "Be careful; I don't like the look of this," he mentioned, and stayed a ways behind her but still within earshot.

As Victoria walked up to the stand, she could tell the woman was asleep; light snores could be heard from behind the counter. Victoria stood on her tippy-toes to plink the bell, producing a light tone that jarred the poor old woman out of her sleep. Victoria stood patiently with her hands holding her journal to her chest as the peppered-hair lady made her way out of her chair, opening a door on the side of her booth with a box in her hands.

Excited, the girl made her way towards the woman quickly; her brother's sense of awareness got him to the woman first, holding back Victoria with his arm.

"Let me open it first; it could be dangerous." The old woman just laughed a pitiful, wheezing laugh; the laugh of someone with just days left.

"Please, boy. *cough cough* Hardly anyone around here gets _gifts,_ anyways. *cough cough* I'm sure your girl wants something for her birthday, or maybe Christmas. *cough* It would make a nice g-" Victoria's brother interrupted as her own face turned a light shade of pink.

"Oh, no, no, she's not my, uh, girlfriend."

"Just a _friend_, then?" The old woman smirked as Victoria's face edged towards red. Her brother seemed to be flustered for the first time that the younger girl could remember.

"No. Just. My. Sister." He managed through clenched teeth; the old lady just laughed more, followed by wheezing, coughing and then more cackling.

_I'm glad she seems to be having such a great time._

Victoria heard her brother whisper in her ear, "_Can we** please** go now?_"

The old lady seemed to read their minds and managed to contain herself as she bent down to set the box on the ground without the top. White wrapping paper covered whatever was inside.

"Go ahead, take it." The old lady then sat down behind it, cross-legged, and closed her eyes. Victoria pointed at her with wide eyes and then turned to her brother, who shrugged and bent down to pick up the box.

_How can she bend like that? She looks like she's 90._

The old lady opened one eye and rose an eyebrow, then closed and lowered both quickly; Victoria blushed in shame, lowered her arm and decided to look at the box; her brother was removing the paper.

The girl removed the item in question; it was a pair of gloves, black in color and similar in length to dancer's show gloves. The material was closer to leather, however, and the knuckles were colored pink; a wiring could be felt running along the wrists and palms. As she slid them on, a click sounded as each glove tightened on the brunette's hands; Victoria frowned as the gloves seemed to meld to her skin a little bit.

The old lady jumped up quickly, again to Victoria's surprise, and grabbed the girl's newly sheathed hands, staring in astonishment. After a few seconds, an understanding seemed to seep into her features as she sat back down, sighing contentedly. Her mouth then opened, and without moving any other feature of her face, she began to speak in an ominous voice, deeper than before.

_"You will endure great suffering before enjoying great pleasure, young one. Go forth and embrace your destiny; these gauntlets will serve you well in your darkest hour."_

The woman gasped as if she 'woke up' from her trance to a bewildered Victoria and a protective big brother; he had his arm across her shoulders and was standing between the two. The girl was now clutching her journal that she had set down with her newly embraced hands.

"I don't know what that was, lady, or what that means… but my sister and I will be leaving. Thank you?" He ended on a question, and the woman nodded.

"No; thank _you._ Now… I may sleep." and with that, the woman closed her eyes and went limp; only her neck remained upright.

* * *

Victoria and her brother sat awaiting the fireworks; her brother readily stuffing his face with a funnel cake he had just bought. Victoria was busy scrawling in her notebook; a fresh page topped with the eerie message she had received from the possessed old lady.

"What do you think it means?" Her brother rolled his eyes and swallowed his piece of fried flour.

"For the fiftieth time, sis, it means nothing. They're just gloves, they look cool, they're probably warm, and we'll never see her again. Get over it." He managed before cramming another piece into his mouth.

"Psh. Boys." Victoria rolled her eyes as she looked back down at her journal. "_This has to be important!_" She wondered as she stared lazily into the journal, tracing the words with her fingers. As her brother walked back to the table, (when did he leave?) licking his fingers, he suddenly had a thought.

"Hey, sis." This snapped her out of her trance, and she looked up with her head inclined in inquiry.

"Try doing this." Without warning, he slammed his fist into the table, knuckles first, leaving a cross-pattern indent on his fingers from the picnic table's arrangement. Shaking it off, he looked over at his sister, who, wide-eyed and shocked, gently tapped her closed fist into the table.

"No, no, that won't do. Harder; c'mon. I'm trying to see if the gloves offer any protection; they're pretty thick looking. And what's that pink stuff on the knuckles? I wonder what tha-" Victoria interrupted her brother by slamming her encased left hand into his only supporting hand on the table; the reaction of which pulling his hand backwards in pain. This caused him to fall forward, having him crash face first into the table. She giggled as her brother pushed himself up with his good hand off the table, cradling his face with his injured hand.

"You're lucky you're a girl, little sister." He remarked with a playful scowl; Victoria giggled even more. Eventually the scowl made way for a smile and he shook his head; it was his fault, after all. Interrupting them both was a loud-speaker announcement, preceded by a bit of feedback.

_"-bzzt- Just letting everyone know that we're starting the fireworks in five minutes! We're gonna do a little test of our igniter here in a few seconds; don't be alarmed._"

A joyous noise erupted from the crowds, and as the people started to venture towards the lakeside, the siblings (mainly Victoria) picked up their things.

"You know, sis, I had a good time today. I hope you did too." Victoria looked over and nodded with a smile, taking his injured hand and sliding hers over it as they made their way towards the lake themselves. Not even 10 steps into their walk, her brother turned to ask a question, and the last Victoria remembered of that night was his face, mouth slightly ajar sa he posed to ask a question; the previous smile slightly faded as his brows began to crease into a concentrated frown. All of this she would remember… forever.

Then the blast came.

* * *

**A/N: ****Review, follow, favorite! ^^**

**-Skij**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Here with another chapter of HTUB. A constant theme I have is renaming champions to make them into people that are human, like the rest of us (I hope; if you're not, hmu I wanna meet you) (unless you're tryna kill me) (not appreciated). **

**As such, since they're human, their personalities will change from what is "canon" of League of Legends lore. Jinx, for example, will be closer to my own personality than the bat-shit crazy motherfucker that she is in the Jinx trailer (but she'll still be crazy as fuck, dw) (cuz I'm crazy af too).**

**Here's chapter 2!**

**EDIT: **

** the guest reviewer who said this was a "lame story" because its "more of an OC story and not about Vi". I have two things; one, sorry you feel that way, and two, did you even read the end of this chapter? I like constructive reviews but I often find myself displeased with nonsensical ones. Please, if you are going to review my story, review it properly.**

**That being said, you've added +1 review to my count. Thanks, and have fun in life good sir/ma'am. For the rest of you, I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

**-Skij**

* * *

Chapter 2:

_"Dude, you fuckin' hit her way too hard."_

_"Sorry, I didn't know we were abducting lower schoolers. You just told me to hit the person they grabbed."_

_"I distinctly remember telling you to just fuckin' tap her. Not swing like a fuckin' baseball player."_

_"Sorrrry, Jason, maybe_ you _should do the "tapping" next time."_

_"Fuck you."_

As Victoria came to, she managed to keep her eyes shut so she could listen to her kidnappers. She pretended to stir, rolling away from the voices so she could open her eyes a little. The voices went silent for a few seconds to make sure she wasn't awake, and then continued.

_"Love you too, Jason. At least she's alive... Now what are we supposed to do with a ten year old kid?"_

_"She's twelve, and she's useful. She's the bait to get to her brother..."_

_"Whose brother is... Oh, no. Not him."_

_"Yep. And if he got the tip-off, he'll be at the spot any second."_

_"Jason, you are one clever, bat-shit crazy son of a bitch, you know that?"_

Victoria tried desperately to see where they were, but by rolling over she had effectively faced herself against the wall and could only see part of a symbol on the wall. It extended past her vision range, however, and she forgot that she was supposed to be asleep as she sat up to see what the full image looked like.

"Hey, look; she's awake!" Panic surged through her as she tried to examine the whole symbol; it was like a compass, with four lines making up the cardinal and diagonal directions, with 3 concentric circles surrounding it. Horror took over her brain as she felt hands on her shoulders; the contact sent her jumping out of bed. She hit her head on the floor with a resolute thud, and her eyes involuntarily shut. Dialogue floated in and out as footsteps approached and ghost hands lifted her into the bed again.

_"You think she's alright?"_

_"Honestly, I don't give a fuck. The only person that matters in this equation is her brother. Tie her ankles to that pipe on the wall and lets go."_

_"You don't think that's a little cruel, Jason?"_

_A thud was audible, followed by a spitting noise._

_"One more word out of you besides 'Yes sir' and I'll cuff you to the pipe along with her. Understood?"_

_"Yes... sir."_

_"And do you really think I care if she's comfortable or not? Just tie her and lets go!"_

* * *

Victoria felt recovered enough when the student named Jason left the room; she'd seen him go through her half-opened eyelids with hazy vision, but she could feel that he was gone. It's like he...

"It's like he controls your fear, isn't it?"

Victoria snapped to attention, looking at the other student who was previously with Jason, holding an outstretched hand.

"Please, come. I'd rather not hurt you, miss..?"

"Vi-...Vic-... Victoria." She managed to slip out. Sliding off the bed without his help, she made her way over to the pipe on the wall and sat next to it, laying down with her left leg raised, resting it on the pipe. The boy's eyes widened when he realized that she had been listening the whole time.

"Well... Miss Victoria... I'm not sure if anyone's coming back for you... ever. So... here." The blonde boy spoke as he struggled with himself, cuffing her ankle to the pipe while trying to avoid looking down the skirt of a little girl and at the same time mentally berating himself for getting into this job in the first place.

"Look." He began as he made his way over to the bed, grabbing all of the sheets and covers in a couple quick motions, carrying them in a pile with the pillow on top towards her.

"It gets cold in here at night; there are holes in the ceiling's infrastructure and there's no heater, so take these." He plopped the bedding down next to her.

"And... wait at least a day and then unlock yourself with this key. Don't make me regret this..." He reluctantly slipped her the key and shuddered when her gloved hand came into contact with his rough, calloused hand.

"Goodbye, Victoria." The boy moved towards the door-opening, stopping in the frame with his right hand holding onto the wall.

"And... good luck." As Victoria heard the footsteps plodding away, she immediately unlocked herself from the pipe and arranged the covers so that she had an appropriate bed space and so they covered the pipe in case someone came to check on her. After looking around the room for her backpack, Victoria dragged it behind a cupboard near where her head would lie and pulled her journal out, immediately scribbling her best sketch of the boy who had been in the room for less than a minute. After completing it, she wrote a quote above her new sketch that made her shiver; the first words he had spoken to her.

"It's like he **controls** your **fear...**" She wrote over 'controls' and 'fear' repeatedly until they became thick lines before re-inserting the journal into her backpack. Shivering, she noticed that if she laid down in the makeshift bed, the sky was visible through the central hole in the ceiling, among others; thankfully, there wasn't one directly above her head in case it rained. As she lay there, cold and shivering, she began to cry. She wasn't sure why, or when it had started, but she was suddenly sobbing forcefully and tears were streaming down her cheeks, collecting in a wet spot on her shirt.

* * *

_I gasped as cold water lapped at my ankles. I attempted to sit up, only to realize that I was already standing up._

_"Weird," I thought as I looked around the room. It was a completely open room; no furniture, no doors, walls completely painted white. It was like one of those containment cells they put people with superpowers into, like in the movies._

_I then looked down, noticing that I was ankle deep in ice cold water that was pitch black; I had no idea what was underneath the surface and I couldn't even see my own toes. Looking up again, I noticed a small window about 3 by 3 feet up near the ceiling; it would be impossible to reach unless there was some furniture in the room._

_Finally, I started towards the middle of the room; maybe the furniture was invisible, or maybe it was white to blend in with the room, or-_

_"Oof!" I yelped as I realized a bit too late that my left ankle was chained to something submerged and I fell, spluttering, into the glacial pool. Pushing up and out of the water, I realized that my ankle was now free, but I assumed the pipe had burst and water had be gun to fill the room rapidly. As the water rose beyond my neck, I was forced to tread water to breathe, moving ever so slightly towards the window. When I had finally reached the window, I noticed the water level was rising faster than it had when I first broke the pipe and it quickly rose over my eyes before I could even see what color the windowpane was. Darkness enveloped me, and the last thing I saw before I couldn't hold my breath any longer were my gloves, glowing blue and pink along the knuckles._

* * *

Victoria awoke from her dream in a cold sweat; her first thought was to look at her gloves. They weren't glowing but they did feel warm, a stark contrast to the icy cold she felt at the moment. During the night, she had managed to shift farther from the cupboard and had lost her covers in the process. The cloudy skies that she could see through the various holes stopped her from being able to see if the sun was out, but Victoria could only guess that she'd been asleep for a few hours, at best.

Looking down towards her ankles, she realized she had rolled them into a puddle; causing the sensation that she had experienced in her dream.

"The dream..." Victoria murmured, crawling towards her backpack and covers, hoping to reinstill some warmth into her almost-numb limbs. Scrambling to the pallet she had created with sheets and a comforter, Victoria huddled herself in the corner of the room, rubbing her shoulders rapidly while crossing her arms across her chest. She honestly didn't even care if those other students came back; she had uncovered the pipe, showing the unlocked handcuffs. All Victoria wanted was to go home.

_"Surely a teacher would've noticed my absence right? We had some test today... Surely they have protocol; they would've notified my par-" _A choking sob filled the girl's throat as she stopped her thoughts from articulating any further. Deepening her breaths, Victoria attempted to calm down, sending her mind to her happy place; some people's would include flowers and ponies... but not Victoria. Closing her eyes, she began to imagine what it would be like to live in New Piltover. Flying cars, talking AI to have as friends...

Vi shuddered as her eyes opened again; the last time she'd had a true friend was her brother before... back during better circumstances. She hadn't even been very close with her sister over the years, either. Friends seemed to be a nonexistant commodity. Looking up from her seated position, she noticed the symbol again on the wall; a chill ran down her spine, but the reaction was overall less drastic from the first time.

Victoria shivered again as she scribbled the symbol into her notebook, even though she had spent the past few minutes warming up. Victoria stuffed her journal and pillow into her bag and stood up. Grabbing her shoes off of the cupboard and putting them on, she hastily made her way outside- she couldn't remain here any longer. She wanted to go save her brother from whatever trouble he would be in with that Jason guy, but she feared she'd just get in the way. Like she always seemed to do.

So instead, she made her way towards the largest central area of the slums and never looked back. She wouldn't be a burden to anyone else there, would she?

* * *

The first thing Victoria noticed was a charcoal-burnt taste in her mouth, similar to eating anything that her father tried to fix up on their grill at home. Her brother would always laugh at the faces she made as she forced the various burnt goods down her throat, stuffing his own face in the process.

_Wait… my brother?_

Victoria attempted to open her eyes and in doing so managed to get running liquid into her left eye with crust, dirt and debris into her right. Screwing her eyes shut, Victoria brushed her right arm over her eyes in attempt to clear them, to no avail; she now felt the liquid on both her face _and_ her arm, and more crust ended up in her eyes. She really needed some…

_Water… The lake!_

Victoria slipped her eyes open enough to see and squinted while crawling her way towards the general direction of the lake- once or twice she had bumped into something, but she took no heed- her eyes were burning and red had started to seep into her vision on her left side.

_Just a little more… Just a lit- aah!_

The brunette's failure to see out of both eyes threw off her depth perception, and she went tumbling down the short shoreline into the 2 foot deep water of the lake. When Victoria realized she could stand, the panic wore off and she began to clean her face off gingerly. Finally opening both of her eyes fully and surveying the area, she immediately began to wish she hadn't.

Since she had been relatively far away from the explosion, Victoria assumed that she hadn't taken the worst of the damage. Evidence to her thoughts was displayed by the many bodies that were scattered around, some still moving and others not. Victoria shivered, partly from the cold and partly from the scene in front of her as she pulled out a small circular mirror from a sewn-in skirt pocket to see what condition she was in.

A large cut crossed her left eyebrow with another donning her right cheek. As she slid the mirror into her pocket and stepped her left leg onto the shore, she noticed a long cut down her left calf and the skinning of both of her knees. Her skirt was torn down the side so she ripped it off, leaving a pair of neon pink Nike shorts. Before throwing her skirt onto the bank, she noticed the schematics of various things she had picked up during the fair, slipping them into her waistband before attempting to step out of the lake.

A pain shot through her upper left arm as she pushed up over the ledge she had gracefully tripped over earlier; the surprise sent her face-first into the mud of the bank, leaving her knees dug into the rough sand/dirt hybrid of the shore. Still throbbing in more places than she could count, Victoria pushed up with her good arm and stood up. Raising her head for the second time, she braced herself for the horrific scene again; this time, she could see the extent of the carnage that the explosion of presumably fireworks had dealt. She definitely wasn't prepared; Victoria immediately threw up onto the skirt she had tossed over here earlier.

_Definitely can't wear that anymore._

Victoria steeled herself and set out in no particular direction; a grim expression plastered across her face. She forced herself to bite her lip as hard as she could, drawing blood and praying that the pain would prevent another fear-induced expulsion of bodily fluids. Occasionally, she would trip across an arm or leg; most didn't move, but twice she felt the limb jerk in response to contact. Guilt ate away at her as she scrambled away quickly; there wasn't much she could do to help anyways. In fact, the closer she got to the initial fireworks, the worse the injuries became for the patrons on the ground. Victoria tried to ignore most, but sometimes the scene was so grotesque that she couldn't help but stare in awe at the masses that had once been human.

The walk seemed to go on forever before she tripped across a splayed body; this one a female with blonde hair, smaller than the rest of the attendants at the fair. Familiarity's sake brought Victoria to kneel down and roll the figure over.

_Nah; there's no way; she probably wasn't even close to the-_

A gasp interrupted the brunette's thought process as the girl's face came into view, and the conscious girl's face blanched in terror.

"Jess! Jessica! Jessica, wake up. Jess!" Victoria screamed repeatedly, shaking her sister's body over and over until a groan escaped the prone girl's lips; Victoria fell silent and put an ear to her sister's chest, seeking the soothing sound of a heartbeat and hearing a faint _thud-thud._ Victoria sat cross-legged next to the blonde, dragging her into a half-seated position and running her dusty hands through her sister's tangled and bloody hair as her head laid in her younger sister's lap. Speaking comforting words into her sister's ear, Victoria began to cry.

_It's gonna be alright Jess, we'll be ok... the police will find us... we'll be ok. We'll get you some help... they're on their way, I can hear the sirens... Maybe they'll send us a NewP airbus; you're pretty damn special. It'll be ok, Jess..._

Victoria's own strength eventually gave out and she fell back, her legs extending out in front as Jessica fell to lay on her stomach. The last Victoria saw was the sun rising over the horizon and wondering if it would be the last sunrise she'd ever see.

* * *

Slipping in through her bedroom window made her feel like a criminal. In a way, she was one; she would be inflicting severe injury upon her brother and sister when the note she was going to leave was found. It was all planned out on the short, thirty-minute walk from school, spent initially avoiding any NewP guards that might still be lingering around late at night. The school was close enough to the border to warrant interest of the NewP side; its proximity even caused some of the poorer NewP parents to send their kids to school in Old Piltover. Of course, being poor in NewP essentially made you a god of OldP and the kids of those parents who attended acted as if they were such.

_Like that asshole, Jason._

Her own vulgar thoughts shocked herself before she shook her head and mentally berated herself.

_We're gonna live on the streets now, Vi. We've gotta survive, act tough, _be _tough. We can't act frilly about stupid cuss words, now can we?_

That was another thing that she'd come up with on the walk over. She had needed a new name but wasn't one of those kids who resented the name they were given; instead, she decided to go with an abridged version of her own. She'd attempted a pair of pronunciations of Vi- vee and vai- and chose the latter. She ddin't consider herself quite at the V for Vendetta level of badassery yet.

_But Victoria... shouldn't be allow ourselves one last moment of childhood before we leave?_

_But I _am _our childhood; you'll be taking over from here on out. We can't afford any childish mistakes out there, and I want us to start as soon as possible._

_Fine. But don't feel bad about it when you're the one crying on the inside later and I'm the one holding us together._

Victoria and Vi, the inner voices within, argued throughout the packing of her go-bag. All Victoria could do was hope that she'd manage well enough to survive on her own. After packing two days worth of food and a couple bottles of water, a pocket knife, her notebook and a pair of pens, Victoria glanced in the mirror and almost lost it. Her face seemed like that of a significantly older teen, if not of a young adult; her hair cut painfully jagged with her pocket knife, her necklace placed on her sister's dresser as a farewell gift.

She also threw on a large, grey nondescript hoodie that swamped her figure and more importantly could cover her face when she needed it to; with this done, the redone Vi/ctoria**[A/N:1]** sat down to write her note. Originally, she had planned on writing a long, graceful farewell, but couldn't- her eyes filled with tears half-way through and she could barely make out the paper, let alone continue writing. Crumpling it up and throwing it away, Vi wiped her eyes and flipped out her pocket knife to begin carving a simple message into the counter-top. It read:

**I love you. Sorry. -Vi- **in three short lines. Blowing away the shavings, Vi inspected her work and smiled a sad, knowing smile, praying and hoping that her actions wouldn't destroy her family further.

_They're strong. They'll survive. They'll even do better without you- since you and Jessica don't have jobs, brother works even harder just to feed all of us. They'll be happier without you- richer without you- glad to not have to deal with you anymore- you're just a burden._

Victoria tried to shake these thoughts from her mind but failed; her mind told her that it was using pure logic and logic won over her actions... and her heart. Disarming her pocket knife and sliding it into a pair of her sister's old jeans, Vi set out onto the street towards the slum sub-city carefully dubbed Revolt'ip, or RP for short. It was a tough city from what Victoria had read in her multitude of books still sitting on her shelves, (she'd debated on bringing some but decided they'd weigh her down) but she knew that if she could survive the toughest, she'd come out stronger than she could ever imagine.

**A/N: **

**#1- You'll see moreso of her dual-personality aspects next chapter; for those of you into psychology, Vi/ctoria is not DID but has simply created Vi as a means to an end to protect herself; it's simply her brain protecting and preserving the entire body as a whole by changing her own behavior and actions. Not quite DID because she doesn't request to be called Vi and other times Victoria. If she did I think that'd be the only thing separating her current system of defensive mechanisming and dissociative. I hope that's not too confusing.**

**I know the timelining is slightly confusing for now, but I promise once the side-plot finishes you'll only have to deal with two perspective/time changes instead of three.**

**Thanks for the support of my remake! I hope to keep it higher quality than it was before.**

**(P.S. Why does a bathroom have a bed and holes in the ceiling (and no actual fuckin' toilets)? Because this is Old Piltover, that's why.)**

**-Skij**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Here's another chapter of How Things Used to Be- a little late (quite late) but better late than never!**

**EDIT: I almost forgot to respond to a guest review, noting that this "isn't a Vi story" and it's "lame". Sorry that you feel that way, but this happens to be an origin story, not a current-age Vi story (not yet, anyway) and you should treat it as such. Thanks for the sliiiightly (borderline) constructive criticism.**

* * *

Chapter 3:

Victoria started to wish that she had brought a pair of sunglasses; the noon-time sun was shining brightly in her face and almost blinding her- she had wandered off the side of the freeway into the road twice now and had horns blown before she was nearly flattened- instinct had been the only thing that had kept her alive.

Another thing Vi had noticed was each time she had nearly died, the gloves' knuckles lit up- the analytical aspect of her brain informed her that the gloves were somehow linked to her state of being- they had illuminated after her dream in the school and after her near-death experiences. Her effort to focus harder only taxed her mind harder, however, and after putting her arm up to shade away the sun, she ran into a mile marker sign- one of those that displays the distance to the next few towns. Vi staggered into the road yet again, barely diving out of the way into the center grass-median as she heard brakes screeching behind her, followed by a loud horn blast, some obscenities and a car speeding away.

_Real considerate, these folks are._

_Get used to it hun- that's where we live now. Just be glad we didn't get run over; at least- __**woah.**_

Both of her inner voices chorused their last thought together as Victoria's eyes trained onto her hands half-buried in the mud that was dry all to her right and to her left. However, the mud was bubbling where her gloves were in contact with the earth; any grass that was unlucky enough to be near her hands as well was starting to smoke.

_Good lord._

_It's a good survival mechanism- maybewe can leave a nasty burn on someone's face if we get angry._

Vi felt her lips curling into a smirk before even realizing it; she quickly shook her head to rid herself of the thought of deriving pleasure from disfiguring another.

_Maybe this was all an awful idea._

_Maybe it was. Too late to turn back now, hun. You gonna let us adapt to our surroundings yet or are we gonna act like it's a field trip, and that everything's going to be ok in a couple of days?_

Her inner voice finally shut up, but the self-imposed question weighed heavily on her mind; maybe she should start thinking differently. Maybe it was time to grow up... no matter how soon it seemed to be.

After pulling herself up from the ground, Vi noticed that her hands were completely clean of mud- it seemed to not stick to her gloves one bit. However, her clothes were a completely different matter. Sighing, the brunette realized that the last bit of scent that she had retained by wearing her sisters clothes had vanished under the guise of the putrid mud.

_Oh well, Vi; I guess you win._

_Of course I win. Let's get going again, shall we?_

_Or do... we win?_

Her mind didn't answer back, and she attempted to wipe off as much mud from her jeans (the main absorber) as possible. Another thing she noticed was how sorely her backpack stuck out- it was her small yet bright pink backpack from school.

_Time for a makeover, friend._

Vi knelt down in the grass and began to scoop whatever was left of the wet mud into her hands- it seemed that they weren't as hot as before and that the mud was sticking again; she deduced that the heat caused the previous cleaning.

_Just have to get angry to get clean. Funny._

Victoria couldn't even figure out how that was funny and shook her head, convinced that she was going crazy as she began smearing mud all over the larger offending areas of pink of her backpack.

* * *

After managing to turn the color pink into brown and eating a fourth of her rations, Victoria lay across the dry grass and stretched. It was closer to the tail end of the afternoon, and Vi knew that she would need to get into the city to find somewhere to sleep before it got too cold at night; it was already brisk and the sun was bright and shining, who knew how cold it could get?

But after looking up to see the mile marker's pair of numbers, _10 mi, _Victoria felt compelled to write a little in her journal. First she decided to start with sketching the sign that had provided her moment of insight; it was a typical green road-sign with its previous city reading of "Augustgrad" scratched through with black spray paint. The next message written in the black was a less-legible "REVOLT'ip", scratched through this time with blue spray paint and the letters RP covering the rest of the sign.

Victoria remembered reading about the previous NewP military institution; it had been established by the military leader of New Piltover in his attempts to unify the city-state. However, due to a few external conflicts, the project was soon abandoned and the city degraded into a shadow of itself, losing protection of the NewPPD and military and coming under the control of a local government that was essentially a city-state dictatorship; no one knew who the real dictator was, but many sources assumed that the position was jockeyed about due to assassinations and the like. Nowadays, it was one of the worst cities in the entirety of Piltover, with an insane crime rate and a poverty percentage of 78%.

The last thing Vi wrote before she stood up to leave was a small string of words; _Always remember, never forget; the day we moved on... we left childish things, habits and memories behind. 11/21/31_

Vi took a moment to underline 'memories' and thought about her old home, her brother, her sister, their shock when they found her note...

She shivered. There was no need to revisit old memories- she was leaving them behind, right? _Time to move on, _she told herself as she slipped the notebook and pen into a pocket of her now-brown backpack, zipping it shut and slinging it across her back. Crossing the highway back to the side of the mile marker, Vi began the end of her journey to RP- unlike before, when she hoped she would be able to survive, Victoria felt something new inside. It told her that she _would_ and _could _survive, and she couldn't let it down.

* * *

Around five hours later and after watching the sun set beyond the horizon, Victoria made her way across the borders of the inner city; however, without a plan, the brunette merely wandered the streets. Eventually, she passed into the 'cleanest' portion of the city; this was central to the city, the "downtown", and was where 80% of the well kept, legal stores were (like the supermarket). Even the houses were richer than her neighborhood by a significant margin; it wasn't like that was difficult to achieve, but compared to the living spaces that she had seen on the way in, these were certainly on the upper end.

Victoria found herself reminiscing about the past; seeing a family with a shopping cart walking away from the store brought up memories from that day...

Vi shook her head and pressed forward. She had to get somewhere warm before she froze to death; or so she thought; her breath was coming out in chilly puffs and the sun had been absent for at least an hour. She noticed a large group of people who she assumed were loiterers being issued out of the store by a group of men in red shirts.

_Weird; since when did police wear red?_

The brunette just shrugged and moved on towards the aisles, glancing up every few steps to look for security cameras. Maybe she could find a little bread or cheese to slide into her dirty bag... It'd be nice for a day.

Victoria again found her lips smiling involuntarily, but this time didn't stop them: she realized already that this was how her life had to be. Her grin radiated throughout her body, and she felt as if she was shining as she aimlessly wandered the store; bouncing from aisle to aisle, occasionally glancing side to side before slipping a canned good into her bag or a candy into her pocket.

Finally, as she rounded the corner to head towards the exit, Victoria felt a hand on her shoulder and a deep voice bark orders along the lines of, "Hey, why are you smiling?"

When Vi spun around and gave him a blank look, the offending party shook his head and spread his hands out as if to indicate the whole store.

"Does it look like anyone else in here is happy? Now, **why**_-" _The man added a poke into her shoulder every couple of words, "are **you** so **happy**?"

_Damn; first day and I already screwed it up._

Victoria opened her mouth to speak but words wouldn't come out; her throat was too dry, she wasn't used to authority figures questioning her- the closest she'd come to this was in school on Police Day, when she-

"Hey, Runeterra-to-customer, are you even listening?" The man in a red button down shirt with what she assumed was a taser (she'd seen a few at the fair) (_the fair!)_ at his waist caught her attention by grabbing her chin and sweeping stray locks from her face, staring deep into her eyes.

"Geez, just a little kid..." The guard muttered before releasing her chin and turning his attention elsewhere, but not before adding; "Get lost and I won't call my team about arresting you for stealing."

Vi's eyes widened; he had seen right through her! With his mouth shifting into a grim smile, the guard turned to walk off just before the brunette found her courage to speak.

"Uh, wait, mister..." Victoria trailed off as he spun on his heel with an exasperated look donning his face. Victoria stared at him for a second before clearing her throat and continuing.

"Since when... I, uh, read that... uh, since when was there police in, uh, RP?" The sentence came out jumbled and betrayed her innocence; the guard let out a hearty laugh before suddenly seizing her arm and dragging her off towards what she presumed was an office. Vi let out a short yelp before half-walking, half-tripping along with the red-shirted man. She was afraid that he might interrogate her fiercely, but she still didn't make things difficult.

"You're coming with me."

The guard stopped before a door at the opposite end of the store and turned to look at Vi, who hadn't resisted all the way there.

"Why aren't you fighting me? Don't you know where we're going? I usually like it when they fight." The guard trailed off as he shoved open the door, sending a large blast of cold into their faces. The guard zipped up his jacket and pulled Victoria along once again; the cold made it difficult for the brunette to retort successfully.

"Yo-you-you're j-j-just a sad-d-distic moth-ther f-" Victoria stopped herself short for two reasons- one, she couldn't fathom uttering her first "major" curse out loud; two, she finally discovered where they were going- the police station.

The guard laughed again as he hoisted her over his shoulder to get them across the street before climbing up the short front stairs into a building with a busy background- a lone receptionist in a blue shirt was manning the front, her glasses far down on her nose to help read the screen in front of her.

"Got another one." The officer exclaimed excitably, dropping Vi onto the floor aside the counter with a dull thud; the brunette chose wisely to remain on the floor.

The receptionist took a glance upwards at the man before rolling her eyes and examining her screen again.

"What for?"

"Uncooperative behavior and thievery; small items in pockets and who knows what in her backpack."

The receptionist glanced up again with a raised eyebrow and rose from her seat. The man took a step back; clearly they had some kind of dynamic going.

"You mean to tell me," she noted while exiting from behind the counter, pushing her frames up to suit her eyes, "that you didn't check her for what she actually stole? You just, oh, I don't know, guessed?"

The officer gulped and looked down at his feet; Vi chose to avoid his eyes but listened intently to the conversation.

"Uh... yes ma'am." Vi wondered why the conversation had gone silent for a few seconds before looking up at the receptionist, whose hand was outstretched to help the girl up from the ground.

"And look at her... she's scarcely a teenager. Get out of here, Ernst. How many times have I told you, RPD doesn't need your stupid assistance to help with petty offenders. I bet she's just trying to survive. I mean, look, she has a fucking hot pink backpack, for crying out loud." Vi had noticed that the mud had slid off her bag a little- she cursed and thanked the mistake at the same time. However, Victoria's age certainly didn't stop the woman from swearing loudly.

"Yes ma'am." Ernst muttered dejectedly as he made his way out of the station, the previous pep in his step diminished by his unsuccessful evening.

A smile graced the woman's face as Vi accepted her hand and was helped to a quieter room off to the side that she assumed was a waiting room. Victoria made her way to a chair before collapsing in it; the woman closed the door behind them and sat in a chair across the room.

She began with harmless questions.

"What's your name?" "Victoria."

"Where are you from?" No answer.

"Okay, how about how old you are." A pause. "12."

A quick eyebrow raise from the receptionist, then her face melded back into neutrality.

"Why are you in RP? You're clearly not from here." Another no answer.

The woman sighed and started to pace around the room, stopping occasionally to ask questions. Her voice gained a little stern edge to it, but subconsciously, as if it was habit. Vi's answers came quick now; she felt a little intimidated with her standing and walking around- it was nerve-wracking.

"What'd you steal." She posed the question as if there was no other answer, and was gambling a bit on the prospect that Ernst had at least gotten _that _part right.

"Two peppermints, a granola bar, three pieces of bread from an open loaf and a small POJ." A POJ was the term for the bottles of processed orange juice that were sold at most stores; extremely cheap, as it was mostly water, and the powder could be added to any tap water across Valoran to make it safe to drink, making it reliable and desired.

"And I ate a small cinnamon roll."

This time, the woman's eyebrows noticeably rose; she didn't expect all of that to come so easy.

"Any other crimes committed?"

"None that I know of, ma'am."

The woman smiled.

"Good. I trust you to have told the truth. Now, normally we offer a three-day jail time punishment or a pair of lashings as penance, but since you're so young, I think I'll throw you in the 24-hour cell- the good news is, you'll be released with the rest of the crowd at noon tomorrow. Thank you for your cooperation." The woman's voice droned into monotone as she continued on their walk towards the back; Vi had zoned out right after the sentence had been issued.

The yelling of rowdy prisoners brought her out of her stupor before they turned to the left, away from them and into a room about 10 by 10 with three other prisoners; all around her age or a little older, from what she could see in the dim lighting.

"Someone will let you go in the morning. Thanks for your cooperation, miss."

The woman slammed the door behind her and as Vi made her way to the opposite corner of the room as the others, she could hear the lady's heels clacking back down the tiles.

As Victoria started to drift off, she assessed the outcome of her first day. Not only was she sleeping somewhere warm, but she also considered herself rather lucky- she knew that this woman was one of the nicer people in this town, and that her first blunder had been let off the hook. This thought and this thought alone allowed Vi to sleep somewhat peacefully; combined with completely forgetting about her other cellmates...

* * *

"The name's Erza… but you can just call me EZ. Everyone does, these days…"

_This little twerp's my contact? You've got to be kidding me. There's no way we'll even make it _close_ to Jason..._

David silently stared the man down between the dual barrels of his shotgun unflinchingly.

"Right, you must be David. Well… follow me; I know a better way into his hideout than he does."

* * *

**A/N: Idk how many people still read my League stories but I'm hoping some do- this isn't awful, or so I think.**

**Review&follow, pm me w/ complaints, concerns, compliments- the usual.**

**Thanks!**

**-Skij**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Here comes chapter four!**

* * *

Chapter 4:

Victoria felt a crawling sensation across her lower left thigh; her brain screamed, "BUG!" and her eyes flew open to register a few golden strands of hair blowing back and forth in the gentle night breeze that brought dust to her nose, causing her to sneeze herself into a sitting position, disturbing the sleep of her sister. The unpleasantly awoken blonde sat up and rubbed her eyes, a decision she quickly regretted.

"Ow, ow ow ow!" Anything remaining of Vi's stupor evaporated; wordlessly, Victoria guided her older sister to the lake to help her wash off. After leaving the water, now turning darker with more and more survivors making their ways towards the water, Vi and Jess managed to procure a flashlight from a body laying on the ground. Both girls felt a little wrong stealing from the dead, but they needed to find their brother and find a way home before the NewP authorities arrived. Starting back from where Vi discovered her sister, the pair set out, casting the handheld light across face after face until Vi's hand froze with the light shining upon one in particular.

Jessica's shrill scream pierced the night as Victoria fell to her knees, the flashlight rolling to a stop next to their father's lifeless body.

"Dad! Daddy... Daddy please... wake up!" Jessica wailed as she shook his body but even Vi knew that was futile; a spear of wood, presumably from the fireworks cart, was jammed through his chest, sticking upwards out through his ribcage.

_At least he looks peaceful_...

Victoria wiped the silent, streaming tears from her face and stood up too quickly, falling backwards unto- a pair of arms?

"Come, Vi, let's go." The brunette looked up at her brother and wordlessly pointed forwards, towards a now sobbing Jessica and their late father. The boy took a knee and bowed his head, kissing his own interlocked thumb and forefinger before placing his palm on his father's head and closing his eyes for a few seconds. Silently, the eldest teen took to his feet and guided his sisters to the car, driving away as the first of the NewP police vehicles showed up to the scene.

Victoria stared out of the window as they left; as she was drifting away, she wondered if things would ever be the same with her already broken family again.

* * *

The first thing Victoria noticed was a strange warmth in the air. The brunette couldn't place it, exactly, but she felt her hands laced together near her abdomen and the gravity-sensation of laying down.

Time gradually granted Vi's ability to feel the heat radiating off of her hands like the bass from a subwoofer; it permeated her core and awakened something within her. The something forced her eyes open to a shifting scene; she now stood upright in a familiar room.

The room's white-washed walls and pitch-black, ankle-deep water were nothing new. Victoria didn't even consider the window in the top corner of the room all that different, even though she could see the light shone a little brighter from it.

What was new, Vi thought, was a singular wooden table across the room with a box seated on-top. The box was also familiar, the brunette noticed; it was the same box her gloves were contained in when she had been at the fair. Perplexed, Vi started forward before remembering about her ankle being tethered to the pipe and again the brunette fell into the water, but this time something strange occurred; the water started to boil around her hands, evaporating the water at a rather rapid rate.

Soon, though, the water reached Vi's waist and the box dissolved into the water before she could reach it; all Victoria could do was tread water before her cheek pressed up against the ceiling. Holding her hands near her face proved useful before the water vapor began to choke her and the gloves' power faded, leaving her to sink in the icy depths. Before passing out, Vi felt a surge of energy rush down her arms towards her gloves, and she awoke as the entire glove began to glow- respective parts showing their neon blue and hot pink sections.

It was hard to describe, but when Victoria opened her eyes, she clenched her fists tight to avoid a discharge of what she thought was a part of her- some emotion or surge of adrenaline- from releasing out of the gloves and hitting her unsuspecting cellmates.

_Cellmates!_

Vi's thoughts returned to sanity as her gloves 'powered down', their lights flickering before shutting off, and the brunette opened her eyes all the way to find the boy atop the bunk bed staring intently at her, with an older teen asleep on the lower bunk with a smaller girl, about Vi's size, wrapped in his arms. They shared the one ragged cover they were given, with Vi warm in the corner with her hoodie and the boy with his.

Victoria rose an index finger to her mouth while looking at the boy; he nodded solemnly and nimbly leapt to the ground, not making a sound as he brought his pillow over to Vi and laid next to her.

"What's your name?" The boy whispered while flickering glances back at the pair on the bed.

Victoria followed his gaze over to the sleeping teenagers then turned back to meet the boy's own gaze.

"Vi. Yours?"

The brunette felt pleasantly surprised; she had managed that without a hitch in her voice and even came across stronger than she had intended, but she figured that was a good thing. "_In this strange world," _she thought, "_it would pay to be a little tougher than back home."_

"C-Caine. I, uh, well, he, uh..." The boy, Caine, faded off as he looked towards the bed again; the boy had sat up with his feet on the ground and had turned to look intently at the other half of the people in the room.

"Caine. Get over here." The scrawny, light-brown haired boy scrambled over to the ladder of the bunk bed and scaled it in two bounds.

_I'll have to remember- he looks skinny but he's pretty fit. As for their leader..._

Victoria started to shake off her thought process again before realizing that threat assessment would be crucial to her survival. Instead, Vi slipped her backpack off and stood up, the older teen mirroring this.

"And your name?"

Vi felt a little chillier than she had been- she assumed this was the guy in charge. _Hell, at this moment,_ she thought, _he could be in charge of the world._

An impatient look twitched across his face before impassiveness reigned again and he clapped his hands together twice, startling Vi. Chuckling, he advanced towards Vi- the latter took steps backwards until she hit the wall. Finally, he was about six inches from her face when he stopped and craned his head sideways a bit as if he were examining which cut of meat to take from the butchers.

Vi's first reaction was a little bit of disgust, then intrigue, then sadness- she figured the way he was looking at her was the same way boys would look at her sister when they walked down the hall before they split off- they'd stare right through Victoria and leer at Jess, whispering among themselves. Jessica would always grab Vi's arm and they'd move quickly past that section, which Victoria later found out was the senior boys hangout- the brunette had made a mental note to avoid that every chance she got.

While shaking away memories of the past, a shiver slid down Vi's spine before she cleared her throat and answered with as much confidence as she could muster, "You can call me Vi."

"Alright, Vi. Listen up- we got good information that there's gonna be a break-out of a high-security prisoner tonight, so if you want to live through the chaos, you'll come with us when things start."

Vi rose an eyebrow at multiple prospects; one, she had a chance to re-create a personality with new people, and two, some action. She wasn't the most active of children, but every kid has to run around every once and a while, right?

"Hah. And what makes you think I need your help to get out of here?" The boy on top of the bunk visibly flinched as if he'd been hit and even the leader was briefly taken aback before regaining his composure and stone-faced look.

"Suit yourself, Vi. But when the prisoner's 'friends'," he accentuated with air quotations, "bust through this place and leave no one alive, you'll be sorry. Or dead." The leader took a seat on the floor in a cross-legged position, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against a post of the bed.

Vi's false bravado had all but eked away; now she was a little scared, but determined not to show it. She slid down the wall next to her things and then cleared her throat again.

"W-what kinds of friends does this, uh, prisoner have?"

_Curse that hitch in my voice, and my trembling hands, and my small stature. He'll never take me seriously._

A dry laugh came from the older teen's direction; Vi fathomed he couldn't be older than 17, but he sounded older than her brother back home.

_Back home..._

Vi shook her head rapidly to clear her thoughts and opened her ears to seize her opportunity to learn more about the world.

"Well, rumor has it he's a pretty legendary shadow warrior; you know, like Zed?" Victoria nodded; she'd read about him in her small collection of books.

"Rumor has it... it's his son that's coming to break out a friend. And he's bringing the entire shadow order."

Vi's eyes widened; the entire order? Looking back over towards the bed, Vi noticed the eyes of the leader on her now, examining her every move. He went into a brief fit of laughter again before standing up and walking over to her and staring her down.

"But of course, most other rumors say it's just him; apparently he's strong enough to overpower everyone in this jail at once." Vi's shoulders relaxed; she hadn't even realized she was tensing them, and she wasn't even sure why she was so scared.

_It's just a little prison break; besides, he isn't even coming for you. Let's just go with this guy and get the hell out of here._

Vi nodded in her own head and stood up to stand and look slightly upwards at him; if she looked straight, her eyes would be at his chin-level.

"I'll come with." As soon as the words jumped out of her mouth, an alarm began to ring like that of a jewelry store, mid-heist, and startled all but the leader of the group.

"Under one condition," Vi yelled over the din of the now-deafening surroundings, "you tell me your name!"

The leader nodded and opened his mouth to speak before his eyes widened and he dove to the bunk, throwing himself upon the other teen. Meanwhile, Caine took an initiative and jumped off of the bunk towards the corner of the room before freezing, mid-stride, in what seemed like pain. Caine managed to turn sideways and look at Victoria; their eyes locking before Caine coughed up blood, splattering it all over the wall with some of it landing on Victoria's things.

Vi resisted the urge to puke as Caine slid into a heap, the life draining out of him and pooling on the floor. Turning around, the brunette finally discerned the attacker; it seemed to be a shadow warrior, standing with two shurikens in one hand and three in the other. Vi risked a glance back at Caine and noticed a glowing black disc protruding from his back. Shuddering, Victoria put up her fists into a fighting stance she'd learned from her brother; he'd been vigilant about teaching his sisters how to defend themselves.

The warrior laughed an empty, lifeless laugh. putting up the shurikens before teleporting through the bars and raising his bladed arm to strike. The swing collided into Vi's arms guarding her face; as they connected, a bright light exploded into the cell; Vi screwed her eyes shut and when she opened them, the only evidence the warrior had existed was a messy pile of weapons and metal armor pieces; it seemed he had evaporated into thin air.

Seconds later an imposing man with a smaller, blue-robed woman came running down the hallway hand in hand. The man, dressed in garb similar to the fallen shadow warrior, stopped suddenly, throwing off the woman's balance and putting a scowl onto her face as she turned to face him.

"Why are we stopping, Vali? More guards will come soon, and I don't wa-" The man, Vali, stuffed a palm into her face silencing her immediately.

"Relax, Sekuna. I'd kill anyone who'd dare oppose us. Besides... Look." The raven-haired woman in blue looked past his outstretched hand over into Victoria's cell and saw the arm-blade and pile of shurikens and growled, then looked up to meet the brunette's gaze. Fear soaked into Vi's every pore; if looks could kill, so it's said. Behind Sekuna, Vali had finally turned to join in the scrutinizing with his piercing red eyes. Victoria was starting to cold sweat; she thought she'd killed one of their order and they were going to exact their retribution upon her.

"How could she have killed one of your shadows? She doesn't even have a weapon." The blue-garbed woman spoke without moving her gaze, and Vi gulped.

_A... shadow? But he seemed so... real!_

"Have a look at her hands, Sekuna... see those?"

"Ahh... that explains a lot." The woman began to walk off, leaving Vi utterly and totally confused before Vali spoke up again.

"We'll meet again, young one. Watch yourself, in the meantime." Vali shadow-stepped into the cell, grabbed the gear and bowed slightly before stepping back out and walking after his partner-in-crime. Before leaving entirely, the mysterious man threw one of the shurikens towards the lock on the door; after a few seconds, the projectile exploded, pushing Vi to the floor.

Her last remaining male cellmate dashed out into the hallway, looking for the escaped pair but to no avail. Striding back into the cell with a newfound excitement, the dirty blonde picked up the girl that Victoria assumed to be very important to him and held her in his arms as he nodded towards the exit and began walking. Vi crossed the room and slipped her disgusting backpack on and took a last cursory glance at Caine, or at least what was left of him.

_This is how it's gonna be, Victoria. We have to survive, adapt, and make sure that __**that **__doesn't become us._

Vi nodded to herself and turned on a brisk pace to catch up to the blonde and his girl.

"I still never got your name!" Vi yelled as she stepped through a section of exploded wall; she could hear the sirens and knew that patrolling officers would be on their way back to the compound now. Again, Victoria considered herself lucky- she knew the streets of RP wouldn't be safe until they had their own HQ under control, and she had someone to follow.

_Like they were safe ten minutes ago._

The teen stopped briefly and turned when the brunette had caught up.

"David." Vi stopped in her tracks, prompting David to turn around again and look at the girl he'd been locked up with overnight.

"Why, something wrong?" Vi shook her head adamantly and strode forward to keep up.

_It's just a coincidence you silly girl; now keep up, before you get lost and die out on these streets._

* * *

David Westrice slammed the door behind him as he angrily strode out and sat on the small patch of grass that constituted the front lawn; his sister Jessica following him and hugging over his shoulders. He leaned his head down into his bloodied palms and started crying, something he hadn't done in years. His sister had already cried out before he had arrived home and was now intent on showing as much affection to her brother as possible; she knew that he felt responsible.

"Maybe she'll come back in a day or two." Jessica softly whispered into his bandaged ear. But David knew better. His much younger sister was rather resolute in everything she did, for her age. He'd found the previous farewell note torn to shreds in the trash and knew that she wasn't coming back. After a last sniffle, David recovered and stood up, startling Jessica who fell onto the grass. He hoped he wouldn't fail Jessica as well, and knew he'd have to strive harder to keep the last remaining blood relative in good spirits; for his own, well... he knew they were already hopelessly done for.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for the support, even if it is minimal. Reviews and favorites are much appreciated.**

**A new Caitlyn backstory is coming simul to this; the two stories /will/ intertwine later.**

**-Skij**


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